Note: This was a comment posted from yesterdays post, I believe it does more good as a stand alone post.

By Bob

If was going to play caption this photo my choice would be, ‘When a recall effort goes off the rails’

Some pertinent facts as I know them which put this in better perspective:

– The petitioners had earlier in the week issued a notice via a letter to the Editor that they would be at Safeway to collect signatures.

– On Friday they were informed by Safeway representatives and in the witness of a local newspaper person that they were no longer allowed on the property for signature collection. This due to multiple complaints from patrons who were being stalked and/or harassed for signatures there previously.

– For reasons not yet clear, Don Flint(blocked in the photo, but speaking to Sheriff’s Deputies) decides to ignore Safeway’s notice from the day before. I was alerted to their presence at the site by a friend this morning. Understanding the circumstances I had to go see it for myself. Even for Don, this seemed like a new watermark for provocative acts by him choosing to willfully ignore a request to respect private property rights.

– Flint and the ladies accompanying him were given a notice of trespass by Safeway representatives at some point shortly after their arrival this morning. When they refused to leave, citing earlier an earlier approval that had since been rescinded, Sheriff’s Deputies were called.

– It was such a bold and intentionally unlawful act that I had to take a picture. I couldn’t believe that Don and his group were there in the first place, then the shock grew as he CHALLENGED the Sheriff’s Deputies who had responded!!

– As I approached the booth to snap the picture I was approached by a courteous young woman who asked if I wanted to sign the petition, but who’s tone changed when she saw me holding the camera. She asked if I was the person who had called police. I didn’t reply to her, though I hadn’t because that issue is between Safeway and the recall group. She then stated to me, and this was key; that they previously had permission(I believe from weeks ago), but it had been withdrawn for reasons she did not understand. So there is no doubt that these folks were occupying the site knowing full well they had been asked to leave. She admitted this directly.

– I went about my business in the store and then watched from a distance to see how it played out. I was aware at the time that Safeway had their own security people en route from Corporate, but wanted to see how far Don intended to take it. I wasn’t there to harass or mock. With one false police claim filed by this group(another story in itself) I wasn’t looking for a repeat.

If I hadn’t seen this play out before my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it. I have more insight to this small group of troublemaker antics than most. Because I’ve read a lot of their correspondence attacks on various government agencies, officials and staff over the years. But this was taking it to a whole new level!!

So we have our community being LECTURED by a group of people who think their activities are somehow above the law. Private property and privacy rights appear to be just inconveniences to their effort which they can ignore at will.

I didn’t realize the significance of Ms. Carol Jackson’s presence at the time of the pic, because I had to go back and refresh my memory on recall election laws. Clearly the one cited above was violated, but how many others that we haven’t discovered yet?

Sorry, folks, this has become like a really, really bad Jerry Springer episode.

I’ve been there, done that on recall petitions and various community signature collection campaigns in this community since moving here. I would NEVER cross the line to violating property rights and NEVER push the issue with law enforcement with a lawful request to vacate is delivered. You absolutely have to go out of your way to respect the laws or your campaign is rendered illegitimate.

I think we’re clearly seeing a recall campaign that is off the rails as a result of desperation on the part of few individuals. It is my opinion that it has been exploitive in misleading in its justification all along. Anyone who knows the primary petitioners behind this effort know this doesn’t have a thing to do with some moral higher standard being promoted. Because the individuals promoting don’t have any such moral standard for their own actions!

This is hypocrisy personified. It’s a bad joke and just another black mark on this community from the same small group of malcontents who are only in it for the power trip. Largely a bunch of cowards who won’t run for public office for fear they would have to personally accept some of the mountains of merciless criticism they pile on our local officials. This isn’t really about Brian Dawson and it isn’t about supposed fear of violence. I have emails from some of these people who in private tell you they are not afraid of Brian, but in public claim they are doing this so they won’t be afraid of attending meetings.

You can’t keep a straight face reading the bald faced lies of these people!

The best approach until recently has been to largely ignore them. But I think it’s going to require the community to rise up and tell them to knock it off. They have already cost this district and the citizen rate payers TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in legal fees and wasted staff time dealing with incidents similar to this which are normally outside public view.

So I’m appealing to Don Flint, Bill Richardson, Mark Doran, Jeff Barber & cohorts; Find something better to do with your copious amounts of free time. Man up and run for office if you don’t like how it’s being done. But this silent war you are waging has reached intolerable levels and you have turned this community into a circus act, laughingstock in the County.

For Ms. Jackson, this is the second time in as many major election cycles that you have been engaging in illegal campaign activities. Please confine your junk to your hometown of Brentwood where perhaps they have higher tolerance levels.

I suspect there will be plenty of denials and return fire accusations. Knock yourselves out if you’re so inclined. But have the decency to use your real names for a change instead of your typical cowardly tactic of aliases, and for the love of God, would someone please explain IP routing technology to Mr. Doran so we can stop seeing a dozen different alias’ emanating from his computer.

I had stayed far away from this issue for months. But I couldn’t take it any longer when I saw the merciless attacks and harassment on Brian Dawson and his family continued. I’m not making excuses for any incident in question here. That’s for a legal system to sort out. But I made an honest effort to appeal to these folks before they collected the first public signature. But they weren’t interested in reasoning and didn’t want to hear my objections to the CLEAR civil rights violations they are engaging in. To this day Don Flint thinks people are required to defends themselves publicly to his relentless accusations and brow beating.

Don, which part of Miranda rights are you struggling with?:

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law”.

Apparently when one is being attacked by this group, people don’t enjoy said rights!. You will be harassed and belittled constantly. For a kicker, our local paper might even play a role in facilitating your effort by publishing one of Don’s little hit pieces. Because heaven knows he doesn’t publish enough libelous and defamatory crap on his smear site.

When does this community rise up and put a stop to this garbage? When does common decency return? When do people acknowledge and then stand up for the belief that while we can have our political differences on sometimes passionate issues, you cannot and MUST NOT simply run down an individual with careless disregard for his civil rights and the law?

I have personally had to endure false accusations from this group that I authored an email blast which I had nothing to do with. In fact, I disagree with the language and tactic used. I’ve stated that previously. I have also been accused of harassing signature efforts previously when all I did was inform the individuals present that I was aware they were on the property without proper express permission.

It’s the vilify the victims game these people use over and over.

For Don, Mark, Bill and Jeff, if you’re going to lecture others within our community on appropriate behavior, how about you start by explaining the behavior of your group today?

If trespassing, ongoing harassment and intimidation is your idea of electoral process, you have some major issues to work out.

The only Chicago style politics I see here are orginating from your group. I’ve had to endure an incident of battery and being physically threatened by your proponents. Multiple others have complained about the overly aggressive style of signature collection stalking @ Safeway prior to you getting tossed.

Those are facts, not innuendo. Perhaps you should look up the definition of the word before trying to use it in a sentence?